Monthly Archives: May 2012

A new study has found that half of female professionals in the UK are discriminated against daily.

A shocking 50% of women face discrimination against them on the basis of their gender each day. This shocking research carried out by the online resource Advise Me Barrister discovered such a find by their study.

Almost 3,500 women carried out the study and half said they experienced remarks and sexist jokes in the working environment every day.

The report found that 66% of respondents had received inappropriate comments from their direct boss or make colleagues about the clothes they wore.

Sadly 50% felt they were unaware as to how and make a complaint about the remarks and 33% had decided they could no longer bare it and considered leaving their job.

A co-founder of Advise Me Barrister - Barrister Rachel Temple commented on the shocking figures " Hundreds of thousands of women are suffering discrimination of some kind."

Did you know it is National Work Wise Week? A group behind this, Work Wise UK have pushed this initiative forward yesterday for 2012. They are urging managers across the UK to get behind this campaign and make sure their professional practices are embracing flexibility.

Businesses across the UK are being asked to take a closer look at their working practices/polices as our business environment evolves into the 21st century. Flexibility being key on the agenda.

A study carried out by Virgin Media Business found that 60% of employees will begin to work from home over the next decade.
When asked 62% of professionals suggested that biggest plus to working from home is not having to endure the commute. The group Work Wise think that more businesses should consider the wider benefits of flexible working.

Philip Flaxton, chief executive of the organisation, commented: "The trick for employers is being flexible enough to adapt to their workforce. By doing this, they can make sure they maximise the potential

The Treasury failed to consider how crucial policies would affect women before the 2010 spending review, according to a report by the equality watchdog.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it was "unable to establish" whether government had checked how its flagship schemes would hit vulnerable people – despite this being a legal necessity.

The government appeared to rush through these points and concentrate more so on the more “attractive” policies to win over supporters.

The Treasury was found to be weak in three areas. One of the main cuts was, capping of household benefits – limiting welfare to £500 a week for couples and lone parent households. The testing of the impact on women was not tested prior to the announcement of these cuts.

The study found that the Treasury could quite often dismiss arguments around gender and argue they often don’t have accurate information. This is seen as disregarding these sub-groups. The commission has warned they may be breaking the law by enforcing indirect discrimination.

The majority of part-time workers today are women and to put this group at a particular disadvantage would be considered unlawful.

The commission's report follows a legal case brought by the Fawcett Society, which campaigns on women's rights, in August 2010. Campaigners argued the government could not show it had assessed whether the emergency budget in June that year would increase or reduce inequality between women and men.

“Diversity is not about how we differ. It’s about embracing one another’s uniqueness.” ~ Ole Joseph

“Minds are like parachutes – they only function when they are open” ~ Sir James Dewar

Diversity. It seems to be the latest corporate buzz word, but do we know what it REALLY means?

My company is in the publishing industry and their policy statement is to “Promote respect, inclusion and participation in the workplace”. Succinct and to-the-point, but what are the values and mind-sets behind such a sound bite? In conducting some further research I managed to find the following statement:

“Our aim is to keep Diversity and Inclusion at the heart of what we do. Our commitment to reflect the global world in which we operate starts with our leaders. We took the lead in our industry as the first learning company to establish a proactive Diversity and Inclusion team and policy.”

All very positive and encouraging, I’m sure you’ll agree, but I couldn’t find anything which specifically stated that staff would be treated equally regardless of race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, age, other. I guess in these “politically correct times”, that by even stating these differences, is highlighting them. Are we are all supposed to be genderless, ageless, sexless and the same? From a company’s point of view, yes we are. In reality, does this really happen?

There’s been some interesting diversity news from the financial services industry recently; at the behest of New York City’s public pension funds, two of the biggest financial companies with headquarters in the city, Goldman Sachs and MetLife, have agreed to publicly disclose information about the racial and gender breakdowns of their staffs. I’ve yet to hear how this has been received but I’m sure the response will be interesting. What prompted such a request has yet to be identified – why should it matter? I guess the statistician’s need to be kept in a job…?

From my own point of view I’ve never let being a woman place any restrictions on achieving my goals and targets, despite constant media reminders that women are not (generally speaking) as successful in the workplace. Women ARE however treated differently to men; we’re paid differently for a start. There are hundreds of reference points to be found which highlight the difference in male and female pay structures, for doing exactly the same work. Unfair? You betcha!

However the tide is turning, as there are more CEO’s and senior female executives in at board level in business than there has ever been, which can only be good news. In fact in a UK government-commissioned report on FTSE 100 board diversity, released just over a year ago, Lord Davies recommended a minimum target of 25 per cent female representation on FTSE 100 boards by 2015.

I feel that the media also has such an important part to play in the whole diversity issue. Until they stop highlighting stories such as Thatcher being the first female PM in the UK, and Obama being the first black American president, then there are always going to be diversity issues.